Zuckerberg says Jobs advised him on building Facebook

Mark Zuckerberg saw Steve Jobs as a crucial advisor for building Facebook and its management team, according to an interview with Charlie Rose that will air later on Monday. The statements are in keeping with comments made by Jobs in his recent biography, where he noted that he “admire[d]” the Facebook founder.

Specifically, Jobs said that he admired Zuckerberg “for not selling out, for wanting to make a company,” statements which resonate with Jobs’ own history of wanting to build something at Apple that achieved the same kind of lasting success as Disney or HP. Zuckerberg says in his interview with Rose that the two Silicon Valley executives discussed things like “how to build a team around you that’s focused on building as high quality and good things as you are,” according to Bloomberg.

The two also discussed “the aesthetics and kind of mission orientation of companies,” according to Zuckerberg, which is a subject close to Jobs’ heart. Jobs maintained a degree of focused control over Apple that managed to stay away from catering to populist thinking and market research groups, something Forbes has said Zuckerberg also manages to accomplish at Facebook.

The funny thing is, despite their mutual respect and Jobs’ role as something of a mentor for Zuckerberg, the two companies haven’t always seen eye-to-eye. Facebook integration in Apple’s social music service Ping was cut early on after Facebook and Apple couldn’t come to agreeable terms regarding a partnership, and has never been reintroduced.

Facebook was also rumored to have been intended for deep integration in iOS like Twitter, but so far, nothing has come of those reports. One has to wonder whether those things never came to pass because the two Silicon Valley icons didn’t share an obstinate streak as well as healthy professional opinions of each other.